


Yeah

by MissIves



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M, HAPPY BDAY JO!, but angst just comes out easier for me, couldn't pick a title, so i went for something stupid, the pizza place AU no one asked for, this was initially going to be a comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 13:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11149584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIves/pseuds/MissIves
Summary: Aegon gets a job during the summer. He likes his boss much more than he thought he would.





	Yeah

**Author's Note:**

  * For [madaboutasoiaf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/madaboutasoiaf/gifts).



> A birthday gift for Jo, because she's awesome. Also, I know Aegon is supposed to be older than Arya, so let's just say it took him a while to decide what to study and do with his life. Not that is really mentioned or it matter, but whatev.

 

 

 

A bell rung as Aegon went through the door. It was the usual tingle of places like this, to indicate a client had arrived. The place was small, and empty since it was only eleven in the morning. However, he knew from experience that Acorn Hall Pizza would get absolutely packed at lunch hour. The small tables inside were all set and ready, but the tables and chairs to eat outside were still pushed together near the windows. The radio was playing The Mummer’s latest song.

 

_Only a cat of a different coat…_

“Hells no, I hate that song!” An alarmingly irritated female voice shouted from the inside. From behind the counter you could see most of the kitchens, yet he saw no one there. The woman spoke again as she came through the swing door. “We’re not open-”, not a woman, but a pretty girl stopped in her tracks when she saw him, eyes fixated on his hair ,“...yet.”

 

“I know,” Aegon breathed out, and why the hell did his voice come out all shaky like that? The girl lifted a quizzical eyebrow, her grey eyes curious. He let out a little cough. “I know. My name is Aegon. I uh, Ravella said I could work here during the summer…”

 

“And then part-time afterwards if you do good?” Her smile allowed him to let go of some of his nervousness.

 

“Yeah”.

 

_And so he spoke, and so he spoke…_

 

“Seven bloody hells.” Her smile dropped as she turned and barked out to whomever was in the back. “That song better not be playing when I get back in!”

 

“It’s a good cover Arya, get over it!” Some guy shouted from the back. _Arya_ , thought Aegon, _a northern name_.

 

Arya had turned to smile back at him, but she rolled her eyes as she muttered under her breath. “Not it bloody ain’t.” Aegon let out a chuckle and she gave him a quizzical look. “Don’t tell me you like it.”

 

“I don’t even like the original”. Aegon admitted, making her smile again. The nervousness came back, thought it wasn’t really nervousness, and it was definitely settled on his stomach. _Fuck_.

 

“Come to the back. We’re having lunch.” She said as she opened the swing door at motioned for him to come in. Aegon entered to find the kitchens, all the ingredients put in different boxes: the tomato sauce, the cheese, all the toppings. “Ravella told me you’ve never worked in a restaurant before?”

 

“Yeah, I’m a total newbie in the business.” Aegon checked out everything: the stainless steel appliances, the brick oven, all the boxes set up. In a corner, the bags for the delivery guys as well as the huge map showing the streets they delivered to. Arya motioned for him to stay there a minute as she went to grab something at the counter and comes back with a book and a pen. “Lunch is at eleven?”

 

“As usual for restaurants. Lunch rush hour is only done by four or so, and then we eat some as we clean up and get ready for the second rush hour. Shift’s over at six. Second one starts at six and ends at one am, though we’re usually done by two”. Arya smiled as she took out a book from a shelf set it on a surface. “Entire name, please?”

 

“Uh…” He was so unused to using it, he hesitated for a moment. Arya looked at him curiously. “Aegon Targaryen.”

 

“Oh,” Arya’s shocked face was strangely endearing. Her eyes looked very pretty all open like that. “My name’s uh, my name is Arya Stark.”

 

 _Jon’s cousin_ , he thought. A sudden bitter memory came to him, of Jon admitting to their father that he found the cousins he grew up with as much more close to him than his actual half-siblings. _Stop that, that was ages ago_.

 

“Jon’s told me about you”. _He told me you were the bravest person he has ever met, that you were his favorite person in the world_. “I’m sorry about your parents.”

 

“Yeah,” Arya looked down and hid her sorrow by writing his name on the pages, “sorry about yours too.”

 

Aegon didn’t say anything to that. He didn’t really remember his father much, and what he remembered was mostly him being melancholic and detached. It took him a while to stop resenting him, for cheating on his mom, for loving Jon more, for destroying their family’s company and made them live off their uncle’s charity. Depression wasn't something easy to deal with, and Aegon hadn't lacked fatherly love: he had his uncles, after all. His mother was different though. That one still hurt something deep.

 

“I still got people,” was all the answer he gave.

 

Arya gives him a tiny smile. A hopeful one. It warms him a lot more than he would’ve expected. “C’mon, I’ll introduce you.”

 

*/*

 

Tom, Sandor, Jeyne, Weasel, Lommy and Hot Pie were all nice to him, making the occasional joke on him being posh like Arya. Aegon was tasked with traditional new guy duties: set up the tables out, clean them out as clients leave, clean the kitchens, clean the counter, clean, clean clean. Arya was kind enough to let him have a moment as Hot Pie gave him his first lesson on how to prepare pizzas and expand the dough, complete with showing off his tossing.

 

“Egg!” Arya, who was obviously at the register, screamed at him among other orders. Aegon ran to her to find her giving him a reproachful look. “You don’t get nowhere near the pizzas without a net on, got it?”

 

“Yes, boss.” He said as he went to fill in the drink orders.

 

“I like your blue hair, but nowhere near the food!” Arya told him merrily.

 

 _I like your blue hair_.

 

He ended up completely exhausted. He knew it wasn't even remotely half as mad as how it was during the semester, yet there were still enough offices and summer classes for the place to get filled. Aegon was so done he did a piss job at cleaning up, so Arya offered to help him.

 

“Oh no no, I know it’s not good, I’ll do it again!” He said as she cleaned one of the counters again. Hot Pie already prepared more dough and was setting it to rest before he leaves. Everybody else left, and a bunch of people from the second shift already arrived. Lem, Willow, Yorko and Weasel were eating in the back. It had surprised him to find they had a microwave in the back, and most of them brought stuff from home or bought food elsewhere. Aegon had assumed they ate pizza, but Arya had told him that, believe it or not, eventually one does get tired of pizza.

 

He had found that one bit of informstion sounded a bit like bullshit, but Arya said it so he believed her.

 

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong in needing help on the first day.”

 

By the time he’s done, Aegon is absolutely exhausted. He sat in the bench next to his locker, and closed his eyes as he felt the bliss of taking off his shoes. He was alone in the locker room, but he could hear Arya outside talking to the manager of the second shift. She has a bit of a deep voice - he had thought her to be older when he first heard her voice - and it was quite useful when she wasshouting orders. Nevertheless, it was always used in a kind, friendly tone.

 

She reminded him a bit of Rhaenys. Friendly, fierce and strong. Aegon missed his sister dearly. She was a bit of a persona non grata among the family after she eloped with Viserys. Aegon wished he saw more of her, but they lived so far away.

 

“So… I asked Hot Pie to make you  special mix pizza for you to take home.” Arya smiled as she came inside. The delicious smell of melted cheese and meat and all the other ingredients filled the room.

 

“You shouldn’t have!” Aegon’s mouth watered just at the thought of eating this much pizza.

 

“Each slice is one of the different topping combos.” Arya set it next to him and went on to her own locker, taking out a leather jacket and a pretty wool beanie.

 

“This is... too much…”

 

“You’re gonna eat it.” Arya snapped at him lightheartedly. “Consider it a rite of passage. Also, we all know one is too tired the first day to even think about getting home to cook dinner.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t even have dishes”. _Just a mattress, a water heater a microwave and an old tv_.

 

Arya gave him a look which was not quite pity, but more like... understanding. He was sure Jon’s told her some of the family drama, but she does not seem to judge him. In fact she smiled and told him quietly, “sometimes it’s good to just… start over”.

 

“Yeah.” He nodded and looked at his feet, the socks that Rhaenys sent him as a gift a few months ago. The note had been simple: they reminded her of the ones their mother used to knit for them when they were children. It was a stupid little thing, but Aegon had gotten piss drunk the night he got the gift.

 

“See you tomorrow, Egg”. Arya did not wait for a reply, probably noticing he was a bit lost on his thoughts.

 

He kinda wished she had stayed a bit longer.

 

*/*

 

They walk together to the bus stop when they have the same shift. It’s nice. Aegon already knew she had studied some semesters of economics in Braavos, not only because Jon never shut up about her achievements, but because it was quite know she had played a big part in her family becoming a big thing again after they lost everything.

 

He learned other things from her: that she liked fish and chips more than she liked pizza (he had to admit, he kind of stopped idolizing her a it after that one), that she had met Ravella when she was a teenage girl and loved to help her out on the business, that she had ditched economics and had transferred to Three Forks Uni because she hoped to learn more about public policy.

 

“Economics can be a bit too mathematical. It’s not that I’m not good at it, I just realised I liked more to study how to better use money to help people than just… analyze the market, you know?”

 

“Sure”.

 

Aegon also learned she was a bit of music snob, which was a trait she shared with Jon. She was stubborn too, and not in the way Rhaenys had been, which was mostly some form of rebellion. Arya was a more petty kind, the one that does not acknowledge you’re right but rather sulks and silently admits defeat. She was crazy smart too. He noticed she barely had to look at the cash register to figure out the change when people paid. She knew all the aspects of everyone’s job, which made her a good boss.

 

He also learned she was single, which he tried to pretend it was no big deal, even though already Rhaenys pointed out that he mentioned his boss quite a lot during their phone conversations. And in a different tone of voice, she had pointed out.

 

He had tried to tell his sister she was just a normal girl, who he always saw in a red, standard food place unifor t-shirt and who smelled of pizza, but Rhaenys knew him better than himself.

 

He learned she was much more observant than what he had initially thought.

 

“There’s no shame in not getting along with all of one’s family,” she had said one days after he let out a sigh of frustration after reading some text from Nym about Dany. “It would hardly be healthy to get along with everyone.”

 

“Yeah.” Aegon had wanted to tell her a bit more, but felt a bit ashamed of his stupid family drama. “Would be easier, though.”

 

“Psshh...tell me about it.”

 

It was two am and she was closing the place. It was a game night and it had been a gruelling shift. Yet Aegon did not feel like going back to his lonely apartment. He gathered some courage and gently grabbed her upper arm before she made for the bus stop.

 

“Wanna get a drink?” He asked nervously.

 

“Just the one,” she gave him a tired yet impossibly pretty smile. “And let’s go somewhere quiet.”

 

*/*

 

Most of the main street pubs were full and loud, and they finally settled on an old bar by the end of the street. It as mostly old people there, but it wasn’t a seedy sort of place or anything.

 

Arya asked for two pints and goes to pay, Aegon begins to complaint but she takes his hand. “Hey, I know you haven’t gotten your first check yet, it’s cool.” She hands the bills before he had a chance to protest. “You can invite me after you get your pay.”

 

“I will.” He swears. He lead her to a nice table by the corner, and sat in silence for a couple of minutes. It wasn’t an awkward silence. But it did feel like it was filled with unsaid things. When she caught him looking at her, she blushed and drank some more.

 

“I got a call from Jon the other day.” Arya began nonchalantly. She made it sound like they spoke sporadically but Egg knew better. They texted each other constantly. “He uh, mentioned you two haven’t talked in awhile.”

 

 _A bit of an understatement_ , he thought. “Yeah, I’ll… give him a call one of these days.” It had been on his mind a lot lately. That maybe he could start making a true via talking with Jon.

 

“I’ve never been close to my sister. We’ve had our fights.” Arya told him quietly. She seemed regretful. “She wasn’t a great big sister growing up, but I uh… Well, she changed, matured, and I refused to see that. I sort of still judged her for how she was as a kid. It takes awhile to get rid of one’s defense mechanisms, you know?”

 

Aegon felt an incredible urge to hug her then. No one really understood that very much. Most people had small families. One, at most two sibling. Aegon technically only had two, but he had grown up with Dany and Vis and all his other cousins. Always in the middle.

 

“How did you fix that?”

 

Arya smiled at his question. “We’re working on it.” She tilted her head to the side. “The distance helps a bit, actually.”

 

“Is that why you haven’t gone home over summer break?”

 

“Oh no. My brother Robb married a few weeks ago. And it just so happens my youngest brother Rickon was invited to an extended camp for survival skills and Bran was invited to be a trainer for a camp for paraplegic kids who want to be athletes like him. So… Sansa and me decided to leave the nest empty for the newlyweds.”

 

“Nice.” Aegon wished his family was that good at taking action in the consideration of others. _It’s the Targaryen genes, we’re so fucking dramatic_.

 

Silence then, again. It was so odd, they were actually quite good at talking on just about anything, stupid shit and she made fun of him and him of her. But he was a bit too distracted by just looking at her. Her cheeks were flushed from the heat and the beer. She got rid of the red tee shirt of their uniform and is wearing a blue cardigan. Arya caught him looking at her and Aegon could only look away as he drank a bit more beer.

 

“I think you’re brave, you know?” Arya said after a while, making him look at her in shock. “It takes a certain strength to leave it all behind”.

 

“So it’s not me being a jerk?”

 

“Nah”. Arya shrugged. “Hey, I bet I can beat your ass at darts.”

 

“I that a challenge?” Aegon knew he could be a bit cocky sometimes, but he also knew his skills. He also knew Arya could be a bit of a show off.

 

“You bet it is.”

 

“What are we betting?”

 

“Uhm…” Arya bit her lip, which really really made him want to grab her face and kiss her. “Whoever wins must cook the other one a pizza. Their favorite one.”

 

Aegon smiled as he drank up and made a beeline for the dartboard.

 

*/*

 

“This is so unfair!” Arya said as she opened the backdoor to enter Acorn Hall.

 

“A bet is a bet, you aren’t a chicken are you?”

 

“You totally hid your talents for darts!” She kept complaining as she lit up the lights and got rid of her jacket. “Gods I’m so hungry!”

 

“Well then, get to work.” He joked as she rolled her eyes and went to the kitchen, and he heard her complaint as she prepared the oven to preheat. Meanwhile, Aegon took out his cellphone and connected the stereo, ready to put some music. It was three forty am and he was sure his stomach was gonna complaint tomorrow about the very late (or rather, early) snack of pizza, but how could he refuse pizza?

 

He found found a station passing some nice tracks from the latest hit DJ and Arya shouted from the kitchens to leave it there.

 

“Whatever happened to hating this kind of crap music?”  He asked as he saw her twirl around and beginning to twist, stretch and toss the dough.

 

“Oh shut up!” Arya let out a tiny laugh as she danced her way around the kitchen putting in the sauce, the cheese, the mushrooms and the bacon. “Did you know I used to dance?”

 

“Yeah, Jon told me.” Aegon said as he silently checked out her movements, watching her sway to the rhythm of the music. Maybe it was the beer, but as she put the pizza in the oven, Aegon admitted to something he had not wanted to voice until then. “I sort of hated you a bit as a child”.

 

“What?!” Arya turned to him as she finished her work, eye big as saucers. “Why?”

 

Aegon shrugged. It was silly really, especially considering he didn’t know her. “Jon was my brother but… it was always obvious he loved you best.”

 

“Oh.” Arya turned to clean up around her, and Aegon started to help. After a while, the smell in the room indicated the pizza was in full cooking process. “Did you ever tell him…”

 

“Nah. It’s not like it was his fault that he grew up closer to you than to us.” Aegon stopped to look at her. She was staring again, with those pretty grey eyes of hers. He had never considered Jon’s eyes to be pretty in any way, but Arya’s… they were something else. “Family is just… complicated, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

 

They both let out a laugh at her answer. He had to admit his tendency to use ‘yeah’ was quite funny. Her cheeks had this beautiful dimple whenever she smiled, he couldn’t help himself from reaching out to touch it. He heard her deep intake of breath as his fingers touched her warm skin. She closed her eyes at his touch, and he didn’t want her to close her eyes but he too felt the pull so close them. They were so close, even his whisper felt loud when he asked her, “Arya?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Can I kiss you?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Her lips were soft when his own touched them. He let his hand rest at the base of her neck as he tried to keep a gentle pace. But oh it was so delicious, it felt like bliss yet not enough at all. When his other arm went around her waist to pull her closer, Arya let out a moan that made all the blood in his body feel as hot as the oven. He felt her tongue, daring and eager, dance against his own with passion.

 

They ended up eating a pizza that was a bit burned on the edges, oh but who cared, when it made the kisses taste so delicious?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Reviews are love


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